1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an address recognizing method and a mail processing apparatus which reads and recognizes an address on a letter.
2. Discussion of the Background
A zip code reader-sorter takes letters one by one, reads and discriminates address information on the letter and the reader-sorter stacks the letters on the basis of the discriminated result.
However, detecting the position at which the address is displayed at the time of the discrimination is difficult, and various designs are employed for the detection. For example, for detecting the address information accurately in a large quantity of letters of the same format, as in direct mail, a cursor mode and a special forms mode are provided. In the case of direct mail according to these modes, the coordinates of the position of the address information are specified manually. The specified position is extracted from the letter as the address information position, which is read according to this specification, and the information within the extracted position is discriminated.
The application of this mode is very effective when direct mail is supplied in a large quantity. However, when direct mail is small quantities is mixed in the mail, the specification according to this mode cannot be performed. If that mode is specified, as the information written in the specified position is discriminated as the address, then when direct mail of a different format comes after a small quantity of direct mail is recognized, the information in the same region is recognized as the specified information. This causes misreading. This delays the processing.